1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a computer program utilizing a graphical user interface and, more particularly, to a method for graphically displaying table-based data in a web-based (i.e., Internet browser) application.
2. Background Art
Many computer programs use a graphical user interface (GUI) to administer the features that are included therein. This is especially true in Internet web browsing applications. In many instances, it is necessary to display various types of data in tabular form in such a browser application. Currently, tabular data, is displayed by using a Java® Applet table. The Java® language and environment comprises a set of technologies provided by Sun Microsystems of Mountain View, Calif.
Using a Java® Applet table is advantageous because such a table has all the functionality desired in a typical web browser application including the following: scrolling browsers, column resizing, column dragging, column hiding, print preview and printing of table data, saving of table data, single selection, multiple selection, user table references, detail view of row data, alternate view for table data, and support of multiple types of data columns such as Boolean, text fields, numeric fields, dropdown lists, icons and hyperlinks. However, the disadvantage of using a Java® Applet table is in the performance aspect of such a display format. Specifically, the Java® Applet download time is considerable (from a users perspective) when the application is loaded for the first time. Additionally, in web based terminology, a “thin” client is preferred over a “thick” client due to performance reasons with respect to CPU processing speed. Java® Applets are considered “thick” clients which undesirably reduce CPU processing speeds. Java® Applet tables also have a number of security constraints which are not flexible to customization and which need specific licenses. A Java® Applet also requires a Java® plugin (a software module) be installed on a users machine to run the Applet. All of these factors add complexity to the overall process of displaying tabular information in a web-based application.